


Faith

by C3Conner



Series: Hell Raising, Love Finding [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Cute, F/M, Forgiveness, Inspired by Music, M/M, Slow Burn, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 04:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21173312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C3Conner/pseuds/C3Conner
Summary: It is the simple things that make love grow as Tifa learns.





	Faith

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to "Faith" by Galantis with Dolly Parton.

It is the simple things. The way the cups shine in the early evening light when Tifa unlocks her parlor’s door. Each stool pushed under the oaken bar that gleams and glitters in the cool light of the day at one in the afternoon set hours before open. Each chair carefully laid on their matching tables that had been built out of aged smoky wood. Every line of liquor lined up precisely with the more used bottles near the front with at least one replacement bottle behind it and not a single one has a bit of dust. The care that goes into every step and swipe before the break brief respite from midday to early afternoon to give the workers that serve this community time to breath.

She inhales smiling at the faint scent of orange oil that polishes the bar at every open and every close. In the corner, the stead-fast woman notes that the table that had been wobbling due to age and wear no longer will due to a recent fix of a well sanded knob on the bottom. The bar owner glides over and kneels to inspect it closer, after all every tiny thing leads up to every big thing. (She knows that all too well. So many years ago, she had witnessed how one simple mistake had put a Planet on its knees.) Now and here she examines the new front to the table leg and notes that the wood matches its source. Rude must have gathered a piece of the leftover wood to fix it.

It had been hauled across the frigid mountains through dusty nothingness into this place that she had claimed and craved into a homestead. She would never forget how patient and understanding her bulky companion had been when she had first mumbled her heart’s desires into her cups one early morning. The desire had been simple: to take something lost and ruined and to give it a new life, a better life. Wrestle it from the maw of age and ill fortune to place in a new home and give it a better meaning this time.

His calculating eyes had soften upon Tifa’s admittance to hoping to restore some of the pieces left behind in a bar not unlike her own and a low offer was made. The ex-Turk had free time and the ability, why not allow him to help and retrieve it. She had shoot up ramrod straight and all ragged dissent. No, it wouldn’t be fair to make him travel that far. There wasn’t any way anything was salvageable. It was probably all rotten wood and luck left in that little hotel back in Nibelhiem. Besides the leaves, what little there are, were beginning to fall so there was no telling how truly awful the trek would be into those mountains.

The offer did not waver though.

Over the course of roughly a month and half Rude came through right before the closing shift to assist in care of the Seventh Heaven not only giving relief from a workload, but also giving food to a longing for a piece of home. Finally one brisker night that fogs hung around the mouths of the few that wandered around in those early dawn hours Tifa agreed to Rude’s offer. They would go in a month after she had informed her roommate Cloud that she would be travelling into the heart of her home and collecting some of the old furniture and wood to set up her bar better. It had taken a few days to settle everything in place with Cloud taking over the bar beside Yuffie and shockingly Reno. When Tifa’s fine brow lifted at the fact that the wily Turk half-lunged the counter to volunteer himself for service (wagging his ill colored brows all the while), she had received a firm shake of the head from her future companion to not ask.

On the way there a winding tale had been spun by her taciturn companion of love rejected and burned for his friend that was better forgotten by all parties involved. During that time, the brawler had been enlightened to so many things about not only the Turks, but Rude himself.

Slow to speak, but swift to move. No matter what the Stream threw at Rude he never seemed to waver nor did his convictions until proven utterly wrong. He was a gifted man not only in his fighting but also with his words, Tifa found during the trip each time he seemed to run circles around anyone necessary. When the driver for the truck they had hired attempted to refuse to go up the mountains with a considerably higher amount than agreed upon, the young woman had been treated to the ex-Turk’s cunning. He had made his point concisely that the amount was more than fair and that they would pay no more so when he had been rebuffed the subsequent tossing of the other man from the driver’s seat had been both relieving and amusing. They had come down the mountain hauling much more than what they had started with.

Rude had proved to be an excellent partner for that adventure. He had been excellent partner in other areas as well.

At first Tifa had set to work on restoring the old furniture and wood solely viewing it as proper punishment for such a silly desire. It had taken a single week of dusts collecting in every nook and cranny of her person with the stink of lacquer when the breeze blew just right to give into the man’s offers of help. In a single season’s time each of the five stools, three tables, four booths and oaken counter had been replaced by brilliantly gleaming pieces that her own father had inherited from his and even further back.

The cost of it all had gobbled into her pockets and profit at an alarming rate leaving much worry in her heart. It had been again an excellent matchup when Rude came by one rare afternoon the Seventh Heaven was closed to the people of Midgar and suggested that she open in the morning for breakfast with a brief period of rest between the day and the night. Tifa had shook her silken locks at the thought, how would she manage it? Simply, the other martial artist replied, get help. Help? Where from? Cloud couldn’t give her more of hand than he already did while managing his own growing delivery business that saw much more monster hunting than anyone involved desired. She couldn’t bear to put either of the kids behind the bar just yet especially with the crowd she was still drawing in despite renovations. A booming laugh had shook her bones and heart at this very valid concern and was followed by what would become a damning offer: Rude would obviously do it. Tifa had immediately countered it by pointing out that he was under Rufus still, would the Shinra heir give him over so easily? A quirk of the lip left her and reply of “I can help” left her even more stunned as the Turk sauntered out the door leaving a spotless bar that had been restocked so efficiently and briskly that her mind hadn’t truly processed it.

It had been two weeks later that she relented and allowed him to prop open the door to Seventh Heaven on a chilly Saturday open to allow the savory scent of sausage and the cloying aroma of sweetened coffee. It had been a shockingly turn-over of profit for her in less than month. Not only were people coming for the simple but hearty breakfasts that Rude cooked up as Tifa ran storefront but it allowed their friendship to bloom. A once bitter barrier in her heart truly began to crumble under the gentle hands of her new business partner. Rude was a patient but firm man that spoke rarely yet wisely. She noted that people would notice the food during the morning was good but the selection behind the bar was better to return many hours later as the sun set to finish their day.

Something else began to bloom in that place as well: love. It was the small things, the way that Rude came in each day early offering her own cup of coffee and plate of food. Making sure to sweep and prep everything before he sauntered back to his normal routes and life. His manner of speaking to the younger children that clung to their mother’s side in the coolness of the morn. Rude’s chuckles at the poor attempts at humor from older men looking for a ready ear. The man’s firmness and compassion to their more difficult customers that remembered all too well his part in their homes destruction. His admittance of sin in having never fought harder against the cruelty that Shinra had practiced and fear that his hands were the cleanest thing about him.

It was almost a full year from their trip into the mountains that she had collected the love from her heart and shared its bounty with him. Rude had been silent throughout her confession jumbled by nerves and silent for a moment after, but a familiar quirk of the lip occurred launching her heart further into her throat. A series of soft chuckles and kisses rained upon her that autumn night and she had regretted nothing.

After all it is the simply things.

Now if her friend could realize what was blooming between his airy blonder self and Reno.


End file.
